Peru Adventures : Desert, Mountains, and Cloud Jungle

I have been traveling the southern part of Peru. I NEVER want to see another bus in my life again. I went to 5 different cities and most of them on bus, thankfully the bulk of them were at night so I could TRY and sleep. Most of the time I never really achieved the deep sleep that I was wanting so bad.

So before I get into the bulk of the traveling, right after the groups were here in march everyone from the clinic and people who lived at km 8 went to Tingo Maria. It was a 2 day trip for everyone to wind down from the constant go go go. It was nice to relax with everyone and take in some sites. Visited a waterfall and a very large cave, it was nice. It worked out perfect for me because that Monday I started my trip with Taylor, Hayden, and Russell.

Huacachina was our first stop, a tiny oasis type town in the middle of massive sand dunes. I would have never thought that Peru would have a dessert. This was probably my favorite place, we went sand boarding and road in a dune buggy. By the end of the day I gave up on sand boarding down and just laid on it, this way was way faster and more fun. Unfortunately after Haucachina Hayden had to go back to the states.

But Russell, Taylor and I went on to Arequipa. To me this was the best city to walk around in and hang out. I wish we could have spent more time there. We were awaken at 2:30 am for the Cocoa Canyon tour. This was not idea because we were all feeling a little under the weather so it was the last thing we wants to do. It was not my favorite place but it was still very beautiful. I am sure if it had been in the middle of the day I would have enjoyed it more.

Out next city was Puno, located on Lake Titicaca. The city it self was not the nicest, a little on the dirty side. Also I was extremely cold in our hostel it was terrible! We went on a tour of the lake going to Uros the floating Islands, those were pretty cool. Then on to a real island over looking more of the lake, it was beautiful the altitude messed with us a little but it was bearable.

Moving on to Cusco we stayed there 3 days the longest of all the cities. There were a little to many tourist for me. It was a little overwhelming, and expensive. I am used to eating street food in Pucallpa for less then a dollar, and here I am spending way more than that. We went to Machu Picchu, that was just amazing. Everything about the city on the mountain was impressive. Climbed up Wauynopicchu (not sure how to spell it) the mountains behind Machu Picchu. It was long and steep, it was extremely cloudy and hazy i was worried that we would get to the top and wouldn't be able to see anything. Thankfully we got to the top and it cleared up so we could look down on Machu Picchu and take in the sites. We spent most the day wandering the ruins and on a informational tour. On our last day of the trip we went paragliding, so cool! Taylor went first and she flew for about 25 min going extremely high. It finally came to be my turn, the take off was interesting. We got picked up immediately by very strong winds, we did our circles going higher and higher and higher when I hear the pilot man go "crap, crap.." using more colorful language. Turns out the winds had gotten crazy and inflatable we had to land after a whopping 13 minutes. It was no 25 but I still got the beautiful views an pictures. It was worth every minute of those 13 min.

That sums up my travels. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to travel through Peru. I am back at the clinic now, the trip was fun but I was missing the kids. It is good to be back sleeping in my hammock. Time flys way to fast, gotta take in as much of the last month as I can.